which of late years has been the principal outlet | ly, when I trimmed them and cut off a cart-load for that grain. This arises from the circumstance of branches and sprouts, and hove them away, that, from the dry nature of our climate, better not knowing that they would grow by sticking wheat is raised than in the west of England and them in the ground. As the trees were in the Ireland. The voyages through the canal are, way, I dug them up and transplanted them, but however, frequently tedious, as the winds, confined one died from the misconduct of the negroes. I by the mountains, generally blow from either end, however, continued to trim the branches of the and often for long periods. This can be obviated remaining tree from three to four times a year, by the application of steam, and after the very and still continued to throw them away until about large expediture on this great national work, the a year ago, when I learned from Mr. Howe that expense of this power seems quite trifling, com- by cutting off the limbs, and cutting them in short pared with the advantages to the navigation of the pieces and by sticking them in the ground they canal. By the aid of government, and under the would grow. I then planted 20 cuttings to try direction of parliamentary commissioners, exten-them, and now the bodies of some are three inches sive lines of excellent roads and good harbors have been constructed. Another important improvement is on the eve of being set on foot, namely, the establishing of steam-boats for the purpose of carrying fat cattle and sheep to the English and southern Scottish markets. The benefit of this conveyance must be very sensibly felt, as the loss of weight and other casualties which fat stock experience in their tedious land journey at an early period of the year, and when food is often difficult to be procured on the road, very much lessen the profits of the feeder. The greater expense per head which the transport by steam must occasion, will, it is thought, be more than counterbalanced by the superior condition of the animals on arriving at market.

Character of the peasantry.-Like our Scottish peasantry in general, the inhabitants of this country may be said to be religious; are of sober, industrious, and peaceable habits; obedient and respectful to their superiors; and are willing to be instructed in any thing connected with their occupation by which they can make themselves more useful.

REMARKABLE GROWTH OF MORUS MULTI-
CAULIS ON A SOIL ALMOST PURELY CAL-
CAREOUS.

Capt. Jacob Houseman, Present.

Indian Key, T. F., Nov. 14, 1839. SIR-The Editor of the Farmers' Register, at Petersburg Va., desires to obtain facts concerning the morus multicaulis of perpetual growth on the Florida Keys. As you are the oldest accidental introducer of the Manilla mulberry on this arid calcareous rock, I beg you to communicate any facts accidentally observed by you in relation to the original trees and to their recent progeny. Very respectfully,

Dr. Perrine,

diameter, and from 12 to 15 feet high. The great
growth of these plants and the great stories of the
morus multicaulis, was the reason why some lei-
sure days in the last summer and fall I stuck in
the ground more than ten thousand cuttings of the
new branches, all which are now from two to
three feet high, well covered with large leaves.
The soil is nothing but a shelly kind of gravel and
sand, not more than from one to two feet deep to
the solid coral rock.
Your humble servant,
JACOB HOUSEMAN.

To Charles Howe, esq., Present.

Indian Key, T. F., Nov. 14, 1539. SIR-The Editor of the Farmers' Register, of Virginia, is desirous to acquire facts concerning the growth of the morus multicaulis on the Forida keys. As you are the oldest practical propagator of the Manilla mulberry on this coral rock, you are hence respectfully requested to communicate any important facts from your immediate personal observations in this entirely tropical climate and on the entirely calcareous soil. Very respectfully, Your ob't. servant. HENRY PERRINE.

To Dr. H. Perrine, Present.

Indian Key, Nov. 16, 1839. SIR-In reply to your request of yesterday, I briefly state that my personal observations on this little island have satisfied me of the important facts that the morus multicaulis is here in the very best section of the United States for its profitable propagation; because the Manilla mulberry is here an evergreen tree, which bears leaves the whole year round, and because it therefore does furnish food for silk worms and does furnish buds for planting on every day of every year. Mr. Baker of Charleston, S. C. sent me nine plants Your obedient servant, of the morus multicaulis, about two feet high, HENRY PERRINE, which I planted on the 23rd December, 1836; and Superintendent of the T. r. C. on the 2nd January 1837, the leaves had become

the size of a dollar. On the 12th January 1837 I hatched 50 eggs of silk worms, and fed them on Indian Key, Nov. 14, 1839. the young leaves of said plants, by picking all the DEAR SIR-Agreeable to your request for the leaves on each plant in succession; and when the history of my morus multicaulis, I say that I or- ninth plant was stripped, the first plant was again dered at New York, a lot of plants, (the invoice covered with leaves; on the 220 February, 1837, of which is dated 28th February 1834,) consist- I sent to Charleston, S. C. several cocoons spun ing of apple, peach, plum and mulberry trees, by those worms fed on those leaves; that is in which were set out as soon as they arrived at this two months the leaves were grown, the worms islet. I did not know what kind of mulberry were were fed, and the cocoons were spun, in the worst the two trees, but I dug a hole in the limestone days of a northern winter. In relation to the prorock and planted them, where they grew very pagation of the Manilla mulberry, I will briefly thriftily. The next year they bore fruit abundant-state that I have planted cuttings and transplant

ed trees at any season of the year, whenever a rain fell, and I was at leisure at home. I have memoranda of planting in October, November, December, January, March, April, June, August and September. Those cuttings planted on the 24th April last, are now 5 to 6 feet high, and those planted on the 20th September from 10 to 15 inches high. Considering the want of vegetable mould and of every earth except limestone, and then comparing the small size of my lot with the great number of trees huddled together in the lot, it does seem wonderful that any one should grow at all. Nevertheless, you daily see that they are all flourishing with the greatest vigor and luxuriance in the continual reproduction of their enor-lime-and which will soon become entirely steril

called soil, I do not believe that when equally dis- CAPITAL INVESTED IN AGRICULTURE BOTH tributed over the whole island, it would make an average depth of six inches to the solid rock.

an object to invest in them largely? We think It we take the whole amount of bank di

not.

=

one who have been farming all our days as rich as mud? I don't believe nothing on't. vidends in this state and average them upon the! Weil neighbor, put down your goodstick and amount of capital stock, they will hardly amount, let us enquire into it. How large a farm have to four per cent. Look at the various other kinds you? One hundred acres. What did you give of fancy or other stock, which have swallowed up for it? $2000, that is $20 per acre. The interest so much of the capital of our own citizens—very of this is $120. Well then I have to pay about few of them yield six per cent. Again, look at the $20 in taxes, that makes $140, then I have to active commercial part of the community. Group hire help, two men six months in a year, and work them all together and sum up the profits and the hard myself the year round. Well we will give losses, and average them among the individuals, you all twelve dollars per month, that will be $144 and will their profits be so great and so splendid for yourself and $144 for your men; equal to $288, that it would be cause of envying the proprietors? which added to the interest and taxes, $140, makes So unsettled has been business, and so full of un-$428 outsets or circulating capital. Then there certainty and fluctuation, that hundreds and thou-is the interest on the cost and wear and tear of sands, who have entered the field of commercial tools, you have reckoned. Well we will give you enterprise with some little capital-the fruits of $72 to pay for that, which is in the interest of their own or their fathers' industry-are now in more than a thousand dollars for your tools and fact deeply insolvent, and in truth pennyless, how-implements, but we will give you that sum, ever weil they may manage in concealing it by the which added to the $428 will swell it up to $500. use of other people's property. Now how in the world do you pay this $500 but Well, how is it with capital invested in agricul-off of your farm?-mind you, this $500 is what ture? How is it with funds invested in the soil and the improvements of a well managed farm? Are they any more productive, or are they, in fact as far in the back ground as the votary of commercial speculation would fain make the world be lieve? We believe that if we take the amount of capital invested in any well conducted farm, and carefully calculate the net proceeds, it will be found that it is more productive than most of the investments of the present day. Let us take for instance any particular crop. The oat crop is as fair a one as any to calculate upon.

Let us first estimate the amount of capital to produce a crop from an acre; and first we will give what in this state may be considered a large price, especially if we were to purchase a whole farm at the rate, we will give $50 for the

acre,

Ploughing,
Seed,
Harrowing in,

Interest of cost of acre for one year,

you invest, year after year-it is the interest of your first investment of $2000 for your farm, payment to yourself and men for labor, &c. &c. Now how much land do you cultivate and how much hay do you cut? I cultivate twenty-five acres, and mow twenty-five-I have twenty-five in pasture and twenty-five in woodland.

Produce.

66

acres of Indian corn, 50 bush. worth $50.00 4" potatoes (light crop) 1000 200 00 5" oats 150

6 66

barley
5" wheat (light crop)
40 tons of hay worth $6 per ton

3"

rye

56 25

120 66
50 66

80.40

50.00

66 60

Total

$50 00 2.00 Thus the whole amount of your crops are worth 1 25 8736 65, making due allowance for rust in your po1 00 tatoes, and weevil in your wheat, and not rating 3 00 the other very high, either in amount per acre or at a high valuation in the market. We have $57 25 charged you nothing for seed, and although we We will give the straw for harvesting and thrash-have allowed you full wages while sowing, culti ing, and we have now invested fifty-seven dol-vating and harvesting, we have said nothing in lars and twenty five cents. regard to the value of the straw, husks, &c. You

We will suppose that you get thirty bushels of have thus realized $236 65 more than a return of oats, and that is a crop hardly worth bragging your circulating capital, which is more than 47 per about. Our friend Ford, of Gray, gets 66 bush-cent. Ah, well-this looks might well on a paels per acre, but we will take thirty bushels, only per, but it isn't cash. The merchant and the brothirty, and will sell them for less than we gave in ker have the clean cash, while we poor farmers the spring for seed. We will sell them for 37 have to go without the rhino, if our barns and cents per bushel, which will amount to $11 25. cellars are ever so full. What then? it is what Now eleven dollars and twenty-five cents is the will purchase cash-it is property, it is substaninterest of $187 50, at 6 per cent, or in other tial wealth. If you were under the necessity of words, is more than nineteen per cent upon the buying this amount of produce in the markets interest of capital invested, including purchase mo- you would find that it was worth something. ney and all. But as you have the acre still on Scrubard looked somewhat puzzled. It is true, hand, deduct if you please, the $50 which you said he, it would cost a good deal to buy what gave, and the expenses will then amount to $7 25. even a poor farmer may raise; but after all where This then is the actual floating or circulating cap-is one that does as well as you have figured out, ital required to produce your acre of oats, inclu- there are ten who run astern and finally come out ding rent or interest of purchase money, and the of the little eend of the horn. Grant yon that nett income. $11 25, is about 155 per cent. Fid- neighbor, and what is the reason of it? They do dlestick, exclaims neighbor Scrubard-now this is not invest capital enough in their business, either all humbug-real book farming. Any body can because they have not got it, or because they are get rich on a piece of paper. If money can be too penurious. They may cultivate a few acres made so easy by farming why ain't I and every well, which yields them a good profit, while they

suffer nine tenths of the rest of their farms to lie idle, and the interest on the cost of these acres eats up the profit of the few that they do cultivate. We have said nothing of the income from your pasture or your woodland.

If the position here taken be true, and we challenge scrutiny, and beg to be put right if we are wrong; how much better would it be if those who are now farmers by profession would, if able, devote more capital to their business instead of diverting it as many do into other channels and engaging too largely in other business.

carrots which he can feed to his cows, he can make first rate butter at any time; but unless he is so provided, his stock of winter butter should be put down before his cows are driven to subsist on food that will be sure to deteriorate the article. The tops of almost any of the cultivated roots produce a greater effect on the butter than the roots themselves. Thus when we have fed out the tops of the ruta baga to our cows, the effect on butter has been very distinct and disagreeable, while in that from the cows fed on the roots and hay very little alteration of taste was perceptible. Such butter should not be used for keeping, as it never grows better. Too much of the butter offered in the markets of this country is only fit for the soap-makers, and to them it should be consigned.

Any one who rides through the state cannot but notice the thousands of unimproved acres on either hand. How much better would it be if more of our young men would take hold of the business of farming instead of aspiring to a life of apparent ease in commercial pursuits. It is true that the farmers crops are sometimes cut off'; but not offener than are the hopes of the merchant. IMPROVED METHOD OF TRAINING RASPBERMildew and hail and rain, and hurricanes sometimes destroy the fruits of the earth; but not oftener than do the elements work destruction upon the ships of the importer.

RIES.

From the Floricultural Cabinet.

Cut out all the weakest shoots, so as to leave Life is full of vicissitudes, and risks and chan-only about six on a stool; then twist the point of ges in whatever place or pursuit you can engage, but, taking every view we can of the whole, we are convinced that capital invested in agriculture is most safe and profitable.

WINTER BUTTER.

From the Genesee Farmer.

The best and the richest butter of the year is that made after the vegetation of the year is developed in May and June, as the food is sweeter then than any other time. But notwithstanding all the care that can be used, in ordinary cases, such butter cannot be preserved through the sumThere can be mer, in a state fit for winter's use.

one shoot from one stool with one shoot from the stool adjoining, so as to form an arch. Do the same with two other shoots of each plant, so as to form a triple arch between plant and plant, in the direction of the rows, all through the plantations ; the space between the rows being left open as usual. The plants should be six feet apart every way. The fruit produced by the trained canes will be fully exposed to the direct influence of the sun and to the air, and there will be more room for the suckers.

APPLE MOLASSES.

From the Ohio Farmer.

There is many a good housewife, who has more no doubt that packed in jars perfectly close, entirely freed from buttermilk or extraneous matters, faith in her own experience, than in the science of salted in the just proportion with pure salt, and chemistry, that knows not the value of apple mokept at a temperature below 50, the butter of lasses; but still believes it to be the same kind of June would be in perfection in January. The tart, smoky, worthless stuff, that has from time imcombination of favorable circumstances, however, memorial, been made by boiling down cider. It can be rarely obtained, and farmers, as well as is not within my province, at this time, to attempt others, who did not keep milch cows for the pur-to convince such that there is a chemical difference; pose of supplying them with milk and butter through the winter, must rely on butter packed in autumn for their winter supply. Too many farmers, we think, are in the habit of delaying the providing their stock of butter too late in the sea

son.

though it might easily be shown, that they are almost as different as sugar and vinegar. I would, however, invite them to lay aside their cider this year, and try the plan of boiling down the juice of the apple that has not been exposed to the air by

The reasons for this are, it does not re-grinding and pressing. "Last autumn I placed a number of bushels of quire as much care in making and working the butter to make it keep well, as it would if made Wetherill's sweeting apples in two large brass ketearlier in the season; and if made late, and af-tles, with water just sufficient to steam them; ter a low temperature has arrived, packing may when they boiled soft, I turned them into a new be dispensed with, or at least, may be performed very imperfectly. But such late made butter has several disadvantages. It is usually made from vegetation that has been more or less frost bitten, and therefore does not produce milk of the richness and purity which is essential to the making of the best butter. Further, as the grasses decay, range of feeding by the animals is increased, and vegetation, which at other times would be refused by the cows, is now eaten with aviduy by them. If the farmer has a good supply of pumpkins or

splinter basket, containing some straw, and placed
on them a barrel head, and a heavy weight. The
juice was caught in a tub. This was repeated
until I had juice enough to fill the kettles, when I
commenced boiling it down, and attended to it
strictly, frequently skimming it, till it became of
the consistency of cane molasses. The native
acids of the fruit imparted a peculiar flavor, other-
wise it could hardly be distinguished from the syrup
It was used in my family for making
of the cane.
sweetmeats, for sweetening pies, for dressing on

Table of Contents of Farmers' Register, No. 12, Vol. VII.

768 Description of a farm in the western extremi

ty of eastern Ross, Ross-shire, [Scotland] Capital profitably invested in agriculture Winter butter

706 Apple molasses

707 Improved method of training raspberries